Jabalpur: Close shave for Rahul Gandhi as balloons set off fire

Congress President Rahul Gandhi had a narrow escape during his election campaign in Madhya Pradesh’s Jabalpur, after a major fire broke out. 

Soon after he prayed at the Narmada river, Gandhi was in the midst of his eight-kilometre roadshow when the incident took place. Several supporters had come towards the open vehicle where Gandhi and other top leaders of the party were travelling in, as they wanted to offer aarti to him. In that bid,  some lamps came in contact with the helium balloons that another set of supporters were carrying and they burst into flame, sending off a huge ring of fire in the air. A video of the incident soon became viral, in which Gandhi was seen recoiling. 

Along the road where Gandhi was carrying out the roadshow, hundreds of posters lined the route calling him a “Narmada bhakt”. 

“We carried out a search and have found no security breach as such. There were not even any minor injuries. The people carrying the celebratory campaign balloons and lamps as a mark of respect for the leader are Congress party activists, and it was just a minor accident,” said police chief Amit Singh. “There would have been lapse if the incident had occurred inside the security ring, but it occurred around 15-feet away. Nobody was injured in the incident, though there was a flame due to helium (gas) in the balloon,” Singh added.  He said the person who wanted to welcome Gandhi is identified as Kaudi Lal Rai, a Congress block president who has been associated with the party for the last 30 years as a worker. 

—with agency inputs